The present invention generally relates to removable storage devices for electronic information. More particular, the present invention provides a technique including an apparatus and methods for writing to and manufacturing magnetic storage devices.
Consumer electronics including television sets, personal computers, and stereo or audio systems, have changed dramatically since their availability. Television was originally used as a stand alone unit in the early 1900""s, but has now been integrated with audio equipment to provide video with high quality sound in stereo. For instance, a television set can have a high quality display coupled to an audio system with stereo or even xe2x80x9csurround soundxe2x80x9d or the like. This integration of television and audio equipment provides a user with a high quality video display for an action movie such as STARWARS(trademark) with xe2x80x9clife-likexe2x80x9d sound from the high quality stereo or surround sound system. Accordingly, the clash between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader can now be seen as well as heard in surround sound on your own home entertainment center. In the mid-1990""s, computer-like functions became available on a conventional television set. Companies such as WebTV of California provide what is commonly termed as xe2x80x9cInternetxe2x80x9d access to a television set. The Internet is a world wide network of computers, which can now be accessed through a conventional television set at a user location. Numerous displays or xe2x80x9cwet sitesxe2x80x9d exist on the Internet for viewing and even ordering goods and services at the convenience of home, where the act of indexing through websites is known as xe2x80x9csurfingxe2x80x9d the web. Accordingly, users of WebTV can surf the Internet or web using a home entertainment center.
As merely an example, FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional audio and video configuration, commonly termed a home entertainment system, which can have Internet access. FIG. 1 is generally a typical home entertainment system, which includes a video display 10 (e.g., television set), an audio output 20, an audio processor 30, a video display processor 40, and a plurality of audio or video data sources 50. Consumers have often been eager to store and play back pre-recorded audio (e.g., songs, music) or video using a home entertainment system. Most recently, consumers would like to also store and retrieve information, commonly termed computer data, downloaded from the Internet.
Music or audio have been traditionally recorded on many types of systems using different types of media to provide audio signals to home entertainment systems. For example, these audio systems include a reel to reel system 140, using magnetic recording tape, an eight track player 120, which uses eight track tapes, a phonograph 130, which uses LP vinyl records, and an audio cassette recorder 110, which relies upon audio cassettes. Optical storage media also have been recognized as providing convenient and high quality audio play-back of music, for example. Optical storage media exclusively for sound include a digital audio tape 90 and a compact disk 10. Unfortunately, these audio systems generally do not have enough memory or capacity to store both video and audio to store movies or the like. Tapes also have not generally been used to efficiently store and retrieve information from a personal computer since tapes are extremely slow and cumbersome.
Audio and video have been recorded together for movies using a video tape or video cassette recorder, which relies upon tapes stored on cassettes. Video cassettes can be found at the local Blockbuster(trademark) store, which often have numerous different movies to be viewed and enjoyed by the user. Unfortunately, these tapes are often too slow and clumsy to store and easily retrieve computer information from a personal computer. Additional video and audio media include a laser disk 70 and a digital video disk 60, which also suffer from being read only, and cannot be easily used to record a video at the user site. Furthermore, standards for a digital video disk have not been established of the filing date of this patent application and do not seem to be readily establishable in the future.
From the above, it is desirable to have a storage media that can be used for all types of information such as audio, video, and digital data, which have features such as a high storage capacity, expandability, portability, and quick access capabilities. It is also desirable to have an efficient and economical system for writing information onto, or manufacturing such a storage media.
A method and apparatus for writing to multiple disks is provided for accurate placement and alignment yet high throughput.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method of writing data to multiple disks on a servo track writing machine comprises the steps of providing a cylindrical disk stacking tool comprising a base and a spindle, loading a first disk onto the spindle in alignment with the base, loading a second disk onto the spindle in alignment with the first disk, placing the loaded disk stacking tool on the servo track writing machine, and simultaneously writing data to the first and second disks with the servo track writing machine.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method includes the further steps of loading additional disks onto the spindle in alignment with other disks, and simultaneously writing data to all of the disks that are loaded onto the spindle.
According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, a disk stacking tool for placement on a servo track writing machine for writing data to multiple disks comprises a cylindrical spindle having a first diameter adapted to receive a plurality of the disks where the spindle includes a threaded bore in a top portion thereof, a cylindrical base coupled to the spindle and having a second diameter that is greater than the first diameter, where the base including a bottom hole for engagement with the servo track writing machine, a clamp having a detent for engaging the top portion of the spindle to secure the disks to the spindle, and a threaded bolt adapted to couple through the clamp to engage the threaded bore to lock the clamp in place.